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Poster:	bkidwell	Date:	August 03, 2011 04:23:36pm
Forum:	GratefulDead	Subject:	Re: TDIH 1969: the best jam with musical guests?

Thanks very much for tipping me off to this show, it has definitely become one of my absolute favorites. I agree that it seems to be rather unique in the band's history. I enjoy the 90s shows with guest wind players, but they certainly don't approach the heights of 8/3/69.

As for modern classical works that you might enjoy, definitely a pretty big and interesting topic! I'm glad you liked the Boulez, it's a great piece that most listeners aren't willing to engage with. I will mention a couple composers I think you might find interesting:

Anton Webern was one of the three composers called the "Second Viennese School" along with Schoenberg and Berg. In the early part of the 20th century, they created a new compositional style not based on traditional chords, but rather manipulation of a sequence of the 12 available pitches in the Western chromatic scale. Webern used this technique to create very short pieces with unique delicacy and precision.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOnFKLvonQw

György Ligeti is another great 20th century composer, who in his long career explored many different musical styles. He became unusually famous for a "modern" composer because some of his music was used in the soundtrack to 2001. His piano etudes are some of my favorite, they explore a very diverse range of textures and techniques.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBLndVyPyZA

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Poster:	jerlouvis	Date:	August 03, 2011 09:57:11pm
Forum:	GratefulDead	Subject:	Re: TDIH 1969: the best jam with musical guests?

Thanks for those most excellent recommendations bkidwell,I listened to both pieces and enjoyed them very much.I got a taste of the dynamics that you had mentioned in how some pieces swell and fade for texture.The Webern pieces started out atmospheric,moved into a relaxed discord and at about 3 minutes in had a very Asian feel which turned to a sci-fi movie meltdown,it had a lot going on for fairly quiet,not dense music.The pianist for the Ligeti piece was impressive to watch,it was very interesting how the open was this joyful yet gloomy music all at once,actually throughout the piece it sounded like he was playing separate pieces with each hand.The music had a tumbling feel,a sense of movement,I enjoyed when it got creepy and foreboding,a beautiful fluidity.At the finish his furious playing created a sort of piano feedback which was special,I did not know someone could do that.